CDC Was Warned About Consequences Of Guidelines

The above link will take you to a letter which was written a year prior to the CDC guidelines being released.

The CDC was very clearly warned about the consequences of releasing the guidelines prior to their release, and yet they persisted in their quest to harm Disabled Veterans and all Americans suffering intractable chronic pain for which they need opiate pain medications.

Please read the letter linked above, then read this one which I wrote asking for their help.

My name isJen, I am the Founder/Leader of Passionate Pachyderms which is a political action/advocacy group dedicated to fighting for the rights of average Americans who feel they have been ignored/wronged/ forgotten within the monstrous realm of the United States government, and are unable to have their voices heard in any meaningful way. I also happen to be an American citizen who suffers from multiple complicated health issues which produce severe chronic pain for which I need opiate pain medication to help control, so this issue is very personal as well as professional for me.

I write today as the representative for thousands of Americans and their family members/loved ones who, like me suffer or have loved ones who suffer from moderate to severe chronic pain requiring opiate pain medications all of whom have been very seriously adversely affected by the CDC’s “Guideline for Prescribing Opiate Pain Medications.”

Together, we have been making every effort possible to be heard over the constant drum beat produced by the CDC’s illegal guidelines, and the ongoing illegal drug problem within our country.

Recently, one of our members happened to come across your letter written November 17, 2015 to the CDC addressing the inappropriate manner in which they drafted their guidelines and the illegality of that process.

Collectively, we have searched all over the United States for legal representation, as we believe our rights have been and continue to be violated due entirely to this illegal document and the subsequent consequences of it having been released, but been unsuccessful in finding a firm or group willing to fight for us against the U.S. Government/CDC. Even the ACLU has refused to recognize the fact that our civil rights have been egregiously violated.

We have documentation of patients who have been pushed to commit suicide, patients who have been forced to seek out and use dangerous illegal substances, and tens of thousands of patients who have been forcibly tapered off of their life saving doses of opiate pain medications to doses lower than the CDC’s Guideline dose of at or below 90 MME, and those who have had those medications stopped completely not because they no longer needed those medications or higher doses, but because their physicians were afraid to continue prescribing their needed doses due entirely to these bogus guidelines.

Prior to these guidelines, many chronic pain patients with the help of their higher doses of these medications were able to have some quality of life and functionality. Some report having gone from being home, bed or wheelchair bound to being able to walk again, engage in every day life activities, and some even promising jobs and careers with the help of appropriate doses of these medications. In countless cases these individuals report having “gotten their lives back” when placed on long term opiate pain meds to control their intractable pain, only to then have those lives ripped from them with the release of the CDC’s illegally written guidelines, and subsequently had the very medications that returned their functionality and quality of life to them, abruptly stopped or forcibly tapered to doses below that which are needed for them to maintain their functionality.

Because of this, families have been torn apart when parents could no longer care for or provide for it’s needs. Divorces, when one spouse was no longer able to function or maintain their role in relationships, careers ended, the ability to walk, care for their own personal needs, let alone their homes, children and families were simply ripped away from these people for one reason and one reason only; because the CDC released these poorly researched, tremendously bias, guidelines which were written by those with glaring conflicts of interest, as you so clearly detailed in your letter.

These individuals now not only have suffered tremendous loss of quality of life, and functionality, but have lost all of the things which made their lives worth living, and to top it off, they are now forced to live in horrifically excruciating constant pain 24/7 365 days per year, they are treated like criminals, forced to sign pain contracts, endure monthly drug testing, their names are entered into a national database as if they’ve committed crimes which necessitate them being tracked where ever they go, and endure belittling remarks, comments and treatment from medical professionals (the ones who still exist and are willing to treat intractable pain patients, ) we are forced to travel, often great distances to obtain treatment, travel which for most of us is akin to hours of torture, only to then be subjected to profiling from pharmacists and pharmacy personnel, denied service because our doctors happen to be in neighboring states, and now medicare and insurance companies who are refusing to pay for our medications over the CDC’s bogus guideline limits, forcing us into financial ruin.

We, those who are least physically able to, are being targeted, harassed, and forced to navigate one obstacle after another simply to obtain the medical care we’ve paid for and need to survive.

We have called and written our elected representatives and been ignored. We have appealed to the FDA, HHS, POTUS, Congress, and the Senate to no avail, they refuse to hear us. What we get in response are form letters telling us all about how they support efforts to reduce addiction, provide treatment for addicts, and reduce the number of overdose deaths in our country.

In the past four months, new numbers have finally come to light proving categorically that prescription pain medications are not and have not been the driving force behind the opiate problem in our country, but rather illegal street drugs Heroin, illicit fentanyl, cocaine, molly, methamphetimines, polypharma substance abuse (two or more drugs used together and or mixed with other substances /drugs like alcohol, anti anxiety medications, muscle relaxers, and anti depressants.)

In fact, the top five killers in America recently included all of those things in addition to alcohol and medical malpractice made the list, but prescription pain medications were nowhere to be found.

In spite of this, more and more physicians are refusing to write prescriptions for the opiate pain medications we need to function daily, we are being told to do things like “find joy in our pain” “practice mindfulness” and try smoking pot or using cbt oils.

Someone who suffers what is deemed “moderate to severe intractable/chronic pain” finds no joy in their pain, and the only thing we are mindful of is, how badly we hurt, and on some days want to die.

You were 100% right on in your letters predictions of how badly those guidelines would hurt huge numbers of Americans. You predicted this and warned the CDC of the consequences of their actions as did many others, but they refused to listen. This speaks to depraved heart crimes having been committed which has caused unbelievable amounts of damage, pain and suffering to countless individuals who’s only crime is being sick/disabled by incurable conditions and diseases which cause excruciating pain.

We are not drug addicts, we are not criminals. We’ve committed no crimes, done nothing wrong. Yet because of the CDC and those who wrote and released these guidelines, we’ve been sentenced without having even been heard let alone tried and convicted, to lives of extreme torture and misery. Gentlemen, we need your assistance!